London's most dangerous streets revealed

STREETS in the West End are the most dangerous in the capital, while one neighbourhood in Bromley, south-east London, did not have a single robbery in a year.

New ward-by-ward police data show more than 20,000 crimes were committed in the West End in the 12 months to April.

The central London shopping and theatre district was also the scene of 247 street robberies - the fourth most in 625 wards.

It was only topped by three of the capital's poorest areas. Stratford and New Town in Newham, east London, had 300 muggings, followed by East Walworth (266) and Camberwell Green (263), both in
Southwark in the south of the city.

After the West End, overall crime was highest in other central London areas popular with visitors: St James's (15,283 offences in total); Holborn and Covent Garden (6,289); Bloomsbury (4,816) and
Camden Town with Primrose Hill (4,612).

Safe suburbs

The safest areas in the capital tended to be leafy, quiet suburbs towards the edge of the capital. In Bromley, the Darwin ward saw no street robberies at all, followed by nearby Shortlands with
just three muggings. The total number of offences in both neighbourhoods averaged less than one a day.

Kingston upon Thames also had some of the safest neighbourhoods in London, with four wards among the lowest ten for both muggings and overall crime. Old Malden in the south-west London borough
tallied the least offences in the whole of London: only 326 in a year.

Other safe suburbs were Sutton South and Lower Morden, both in south London.

Croydon's Fairfield, however, were among the ten most dangerous with 4,135 crimes and 231 muggings.

Unsurprisingly, areas notorious for their run-down council estates also made the top ten for street robberies. Tottenham Green in north London, where a police officer was killed in riots on the
Broadwater Farm estate in 1985, came ninth with 222 muggings.

Stonebridge in Brent, north-west London, was in tenth place with 209 robberies. It was the scene of a triple family murder over a drug row on the Stonebridge estate last year, as well as the
double murder of seven-year-old Toni-Ann Byfield and her drug dealer dad in 2003.

Police said they were carrying out "a raft of initiatives and targeted operations" to cut down on street crime. In the 12 months to April, muggings rose by 16%, but the increase rate has since
declined by 2%, a spokesman said.